Around 500 Rakhine Buddhists gathered in the town of Yanbyal, Ramree Township, on Jan. 12 to protest against Muslims in nearby Kyauknimaw village claiming Kaman ethnicity in order to gain Myanmar citizenship.
The protesters say the Muslims are actually “Bengalis” – a term used to imply that Rohingya Muslims are not indigenous to Myanmar. The Rohingya are widely considered illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and have been systematically denied citizenship since 1982.
The Kaman are a separate, Burmese-speaking Muslim minority who are recognized as one of the seven indigenous communities of Rakhine State, and they are recognized as citizens of Myanmar.
According to Rohingya activist Nay San Lwin, the Muslims of Kyauknimaw village have historically identified as “Rakhine Muslims” – Rakhine-speaking Muslims who identify as neither Rohingya nor Kaman. However, since in 1990s, the Myanmar government stopped recognizing “Rakhine Muslim” as an ethnic identity and has pressured members of the community to register as “Bengali,” which would render them stateless.
In order to preserve their status as citizens of Myanmar, many Rakhine Muslims have opted to register as Kaman.
At the Yanbyal protest, Rakhine Buddhists claimed that “Bengalis” from Kyauknimaw village were cheating the national verification process by claiming to be Kaman. They said they are certain fraud was committed because over 1,000 people from the village registered as Kaman, even though less than 100 Kaman are known to live there.
Protester Phyu Lone told Eleven: “We’ve been hearing that Bengalis in Rakhine are secretly plotting to gain citizenship cards. We are protesting against attempts by the Bengalis in Kyauknimaw to become Kaman ethnics as well as for immigration officials to follow the 1982 Citizenship Law. We have to protest because the groups that have been conducting field data collections lack transparency in how they do things.”
Despite having citizenship, Kaman Muslims have endured the same persecution from Rakhine Buddhists and the Myanmar government as Rohingyas have. Their homes have been burned in military’s counter-insurgency campaigns that have displaced over 650,000 Rohingya from the country, and they are regularly accused of faking their own identities in order to gain citizenship.
Thousands of Kaman and Rakhine Muslims have been forced to live in IDP camps since communal violence erupted between Rakhine State’s Buddhist and Muslim populations in 2012. They are rarely allowed to travel beyond these camps.
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